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Baby among five dead as family car crashes into cement lorry
MALAYSIA - The roads to and from Sri Aman, Sarawak, are known to be death traps.
On Thursday morning, five people died and two others were seriously injured when the car they were in crashed into a cement-mixer lorry.
The family of seven were heading to Sarikei from Engkilili, in Sarawak, when their Perodua Kancil swerved into the opposite lane and crashed into the lorry.
Police believe that the car had been speeding, The Star reported. The lorry driver was not hurt.
The driver, identified as Mr Mohd Rachael Abdullah, 22, and four others, including a one-year-old, were killed. Most of them were pinned inside the car.
The injured were 19-year-old Salbiah Minggat and another one-year-old. It is not known whether the one-year-olds are siblings.
In shock
When rescue officers opened the car door, they found Miss Salbiah in shock amid the wreckage. Her head was bloodied.
Sin Chew Daily reported that rescuers heard the injured one-year-old crying and found the child on the father's lap.
The two injured were taken to the Sri Aman Hospital.
The roads to and from Sri Aman have a long history of fatal accidents, many of them involving head-on ones with heavy vehicles.
People who travel on the roads there tend to speed and overtake on the long and straight stretch.
This latest fatal accident has brought the number of people who have died on the roads in the Sri Aman/Betong Divisions to 18 this year, The Star reported.
Businessman trapped in crashed car burned alive as onlookers watch helplessly
The businessman was on his way from Sungai Petani to Bedong, in Kedah, when he apparently nodded off at the wheel.
He lost control of the car, which slammed into a lamp post, skidded, turned turtle and plunged into a narrow ditch near a petrol station at about 2am on Thursday, The Star reported.
Mr Tan Wei Siong, 43, a bird's nest products entrepreneur, was trapped under the wreckage of his car when it caught fire after the accident.
Several passers-by rushed to help him and tried to smash the car's windscreen and windows.
After the car caught fire, a passer-by ran to the nearby petrol station to borrow a fire extinguisher.
The man, who did not want to be identified, said he was running back to the car with the fire extinguisher when he saw the fire engulfing the entire vehicle.
"I watched in horror because I believe the victim was still conscious when the car caught fire," the man was quoted as saying.
Another passer-by told Sin Chew Daily: "The fire was too strong for us to smash the windows, and we could only watch helplessly as the driver pleaded for someone to save him."
Sungai Petani Fire and Rescue Department officers, with the help of voluntary firefighting units, took about an hour to put out the fire and remove Mr Tan's charred remains from the car.
His remains were sent to the Sultan Abdul Halim Hospital for a post-mortem. He leaves behind a wife and a daughter.
Chinese media reports said that he had just taken over the business from his father.
This article was first published in The New Paper.
Trapped in agony in two car crashes
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(Photos: China Press) |
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